Is This Friendship?
by watchitstark
Summary: The staring was accidental. The friendship, well, maybe it was just a safe way to get closer to each other. Meredith/Addison.
1. Chapter 1

**Is This Friendship?**

Addison wasn't paying attention to whatever Burke was saying. Her eyes were focused somewhere else entirely though she wouldn't admit that even to herself. Maybe this was important she thought a little dreamily as she glanced back over to the younger doctor. Her face was still set in a politely concerned look, trying to pretend that her brain wasn't drifting through endless scenarios and memories. She sighed. "I'm really very sorry Dr Burke, I just got paged. If you would excuse me." She hurried off, Burke staring after her; he was sure that he hadn't heard a pager go off.

Meredith watched the red haired doctor walk away wistfully but she quickly composed herself; she could not let it get around the rumour mill that she had been caught staring at her ex-boyfriend's ex-wife as she walked away, and she certainly did not want anyone to know that that was why she had not taken Derek back after he had got divorced. Not even Christina knew about her weird little attraction to the older woman though if she was truly honest it wasn't really all that little.

She really had to find a good way to get the blonde to stop being near her in the hospital, her usually impeccable bedside manner has this habit of deteriorating rather rapidly whenever she was present, and Bailey seemed to somehow keep on making them end up working together. It was odd, as Izzie was usually the one to end up assigned to her and it was making her work days rather a lot more strenuous.

"Grey we have a 911!" Addison shouted as she ran past her, red hair blazing a trail behind her, somehow managed to still look elegant even as she tottered on her high heels. The intern chased after her surprised at the pace the older woman was somehow managing.

"How do you manage that in heels?!" Meredith asked incredulously as she slid, panting to a stop beside the taller woman.

"I have a lot of practice," she smirked. "Running in high heels is practically my party trick." Meredith wheezed some laughter and they stood together for a long moment until the Ambulance came wailing to a stop and the Paramedics started to yell details about the patient at them.

"That was an exciting day," Meredith laughed as they stood side by side in front of the large metal sinks, washing the smell of the OR off of their hands and arms.

"Yes, it was and I'd been expecting it to be virtually silent today, what with having now patients recently just a couple of c sections that didn't have any complications. Next c section I might even let you open her up," she ginned at her, eyes sparkling mischievously.

"That would be seriously awesome, thank you" she couldn't stop herself from grinning back' the older woman's smile was infectious.

"I'll page you for the next one" she promised and dried her hands, which then instantly went to her hair to take it down from the restrictive ponytail it had been imprisoned in. She shook her hand and it fell down around her face. The blonde had to fight the urge to run her hands through the fiery locks she quickly distracted herself with drying her hand very thoroughly but when she turned back her superior was still running her fingers through it generally fussing with the fiery locks.

"It looks fine," she told her with a smile. "Stop fussing."

"Just fine?" she pouted and Meredith couldn't fight the laughter that bubbled out of her throat at the adorable expression that adorned the redhead's features.

"Okay fine, it looks great as always. No one would ever suspect that you just spent six hours in the OR performing a complicated operation."

"Thank you, I'll take your word for it," she grinned at her, but the younger woman noticed the way that blue eyes softened and it seemed as though she had really taken the compliment on board. As though she didn't know that Meredith had always thought that, even though she truly had.

"You should, I'm always right," she laughed, still keeping the mood light.

"Of course, lowly intern," she mocked.

"Oh shush Ruler of All That is Evil."

"You can call me Satan if you like; it's less of a mouthful."

"Oh shall I just call you Satan in front of the patients?"

"What not? I can just say that you're a crazy intern and be all nice and no one will ever even look twice. Miranda will probably even stick up for me."

"It's so weird that you call her Miranda," Meredith wrinkled her nose. "You call Burke Preston as well."

"Well those are their names," she responded, nonplussed as she led them out of the small room.

"Yes and hardly anyone else uses them, Burke won't even let Derek use his first name."

"I know, he told us that he likes me more which is why I'm allowed to call him Preston while we were casually prepping for surgery one time."

"I'm not surprised," she laughed. "I'd rather like to go back to last name basis with him to be honest."

"Does that mean you like me more?" the redhead asked mischievously.

"Of course, I mean you buy me hot chocolate when we have a particularly bad day and you even call it juju which is vaguely adorable."

"Oh, that's obviously it," she teased.

"That and you actually told me you were married when we were first introduced," the redhead laughed and nodded.

"I suppose that that does gain me points in your eyes," she chuckled. Meredith's eyes softened as she thought about what she had done to the older woman's marriage. The always perceptive neonatal surgeon noticed and moved closer to her subordinate.

"Meredith, it wasn't your fault. You know that I don't blame you for what happened with Derek. The damage had already been done, you were just a symptom."

"But still, maybe you could have managed to fix it if it wasn't for me, maybe Derek would have honestly tried for you," she sighed.

"Even if we had managed to fix it, it wouldn't have been as strong as before. We wouldn't have been as happy."

"You don't know that," the blonde sighed. "Are you happy now?"

"In this moment? Well I was until we started to delve into the past," she sighed. "It happened. That's it. I slept with Mark and Derek realised he didn't love me so he attempted to move on. It worked. I ruined it so we got divorced. And now, I am single. And look at us two; we are single women who don't need a man to make us happy." Addison said firmly.

"But the sex," Meredith whined, which got the wanted laugh out of her companion.

"You'll survive! Didn't you break a guy once?"

"That was one time!" she responded loudly, aggravated. "It wasn't even my fault! He had a tumour! That has nothing to do with me," she said firmly, attempting to end this topic of conversation immediately.

"You broke him," she teased, smirking at the distressed intern.

"I – no – ugh you know what I am going to check on some patients, as that is what I am paid to do," she started to walk down the hall, glaring at the grinning surgeon.

"You broke his penis!" she mouthed at her, the response to which she received was a rude gesture and a cheeky smile. Addison laughed to herself and headed to her office, shaking her head at the other woman's behaviour.


	2. Chapter 2

Meredith and her usual cohorts sat at their usual table, though everyone seemed to be looking at Addison.

"She's so hot," Alex remarked and Izzie slapped him.

"She kind of is, I mean I totally would have stayed with her even if she cheated on me." George remarked, which earned him a slap. The current subject of their scrutiny was sat at a corner table and appeared to be immersed in her book. "Mean apart from the fact that she's Satan" he stammered quickly.

"Hey don't call her that," Meredith snapped. Everyone turned to look at her.

"What? Shouldn't you be condoning the name calling?" Izzie questioned.

"No. You guys are being horrible and she's not even that bad. Which you guys would know if you'd just both to talk to her."

"Uhm sorry Mere but when did you become her biggest fan?" George questioned.

"I just, I've been on her service a few times recently and now that Derek is out of the way we figure that becoming friends is a good idea."

"For who?" Christina butted in.

"Well, both of us. Disliking people is tiring to be honest and we work together. It's just easier," she glanced over at the redhead who was still absorbed in her book.

"But what does that mean?" Izzie questioned.

"I don't know. But we had a great conversation yesterday and we have pretty much sorted all of our issues out. So we are all bright and shiny and very happy."

"You should make her sit with us," Alex suggested, still staring over at the redhead.

"Pervert," the blonde muttered.

"You can't blame him, he might be evil spawn but for once I actually agree with him. If it wasn't for Burke I would be on that" Christina chimed in.

Izzie looked over at the attending again. "You're right, I don't know whether I want to be her or be with her," she admitted.

"That's so hot," Alex chimed in intelligently as George just stared at them all.

"I suppose," Meredith laughed. "I don't see why Derek let himself drift away from her anyway, she's a catch. She's more than a catch. She's like you've just won the jackpot."

"So now that she's single who's going to go for her? Because you'll be competing with me."

"Alex you have no chance," all of them shook their heads at the very idea.

"She's not going to go out with you," Meredith laughed.

"Why not?" he challenged.

"Because she's not some desperate nurse," Izzie scoffed.

"Evil spawn you have no hope."

"She's out of everyone's league. We're interns," George reminded the other intern sat at the table.

"Erm, Christina goes out with Burke and Shepherd's in love with Meredith? I'm not giving up that easily."

"You're going to stay away from her," Meredith said firmly.

"Why are you so fussed?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that you're just another intern to her. Also, she just went through a divorce! A divorce that I technically am to be blamed for even though she's been attempting to get me to believe that I have nothing to do with it!"

"She doesn't blame you?" Izzie couldn't hide the shock in her voice.

"No, she doesn't. She was pretty adamant, actually," the whole table turned to look at the redhead. This time she was already looking over at them with a smirk.

"Oh God she saw us," George stammered and everyone quickly turned to face the table, heads down and pretending to concentrate on their lunch. Meredith smiled at the older woman who smiled softly back, and then went back to smirking at the other interns with a raised eyebrow, who were all trying to pretend like they weren't sneaking glances at her to check if she was still looking at them.

"Who do you get a smile?" Christina questioned.

"Because like I said, I think we're trying the friends thing. It'll be nice; I want to be friends with her."

"If I was Derek I'd be so annoyed. Two chicks that were fighting over me stop doing so, I end up with neither of them and they end up friends," Alex volunteered.

"You probably wouldn't care that much, actually, because you'd just find someone else to sleep with," Izzie muttered bitterly. There were general murmurs of assent from around the table.

"Yeah hopefully they end up having lesbian sleepovers and let me watch."

"Perv."

"Get out."

"I'm leaving," Meredith announced and grabbed her tray, unable to help but smirk at the redhead as she passed her table, which was returned with a perfectly shaped raised eyebrow and a laugh.

Christina turned back to the table." There is definitely something going on there," she announced.

"Well I hope it's lesbian in nature," Alex smirked and everyone slapped him again.

* * *

"Morning Addison" Meredith greeted cheerfully in the lift the next day.

"Morning," the redhead returned the grin that was being directed at her and slid in next to the blonde, leaning across her to punch the button of the floor that she wanted. Meredith passed her one of the coffee cups she was holding. "Thank you," she said gratefully, and took a sip of the hot beverage. "I've managed to steal you for today, so you're on my service. There'll be some surgery in it for you."

"Excellent, thank you," her grin returned.

"You don't have the same sort of flair for obstetrics as Stevens, but you still manage to be pretty good," the lift stopped at her floor. "I'll see you in a bit."

"See you," Meredith said as the doors closed behind the taller woman. She sighed and let herself lean heavily onto one of the walls of the lift. "I am so screwed," she muttered.

* * *

She knocked carefully on the door of Addison's office, and stepped in when she heard the faint murmur of "come in".

"Hi, I'll be your intern today, how can I help you?" she joked as she closed the door behind her.

"To be honest, I didn't really need an intern," she laughed. "Today's going to be really boring, but you're going to be glad to hear that I haven't been keeping up with my patients' charts recently, so that's what we get to do!"

"Oh brilliant," the shorter woman groaned and dramatically threw herself down onto a chair.

"That's exactly what you wanted to hear, right?"she grinned and cleared some space on the desk for the blonde to work in, and then handed her some of the charts that she had stacked up.

"What happened to surgery?" she questioned with a pout as she settled opposite the redhead.

"There is surgery. A caesarean in fact, which I'm going to let you do quite a bit of the work on. But, that's not until this afternoon. So until then, charts."

"Charts are worth it, even a whole morning of charts," she said quickly.

"That's what I thought. You better not mess this up, Grey," she said warningly.

"I won't," she promised. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time."

"You're practically vibrating with excitement, calm down," Addison laughed.

"Sorry, I just, you remember how exciting it was, right?"

"Yes, of course, everyone remembers the first surgery that they actually get to participate in," she paused. "Mine was, ever so excitingly, an appendectomy."

"Ooh, don't mention that to George, he killed a patient doing one of those on his first day."

"Ah. Well he did then continue on to perform open heart surgery in a lift, so I wouldn't be too annoyed if I was him."

"That was amazing just to watch, I can't imagine what that must have been like," Meredith said, envy coating her voice.

"I can imagine, I just had to hear about it later," she leant back in her chair and took off her glasses, giving up on any pretence that she was still doing paperwork.

"That feels like a really long time ago," the blonde mused.

"It really does," Addison sighed. "Anyway, I would like more coffee, so I'm going to go hunt some day and I'll leave you here to fill out my charts for me."

"Yes please?" the shorted woman grinned cheekily.

"I'll think about it," she grumbled with a smirk, then she left the office. She had to get out of there, she could already tell that today was going to be a long, hard day.

"I am so screwed," she whined as she took her place near the back of the empty lift.


	3. Chapter 3

"The coffee you requested," Addison said with a smirk and handed the younger woman the cardboard cup, which was received with a grin.

"You're a legend," she said gratefully as she took the beverage and quickly gulped some down. She was also grateful that it had cooled on Addison's walk back up to her office.

"I see you've made yourself comfortable," the redhead smirked, pointedly eying the charts that had ended up strewn all over the desk, there were even a few on the floor.

The blonde grinned sheepishly. "I'm kind of a messy worker?"

"At least you've been doing work, I suppose," she laughed and reclaimed her seat opposite the intern.

"Charting is soooo boorrriiinnngggg," she whined and threw her pen down in disgust.

"I know. But it's also essential."

"I hate being an intern," she continued to grumble.

Addison couldn't help but laugh. "Everyone hates being an intern. For the first year of your residency it'll almost feel like nothing's changed, apart from the fact that you'll have your own interns to boss around."

"But what if I fail my intern test?" she questioned nervously.

"Oh don't even bother. You and Yang will probably end up with the two highest scores of your year. It's Karev that I'm putting my money on. Or maybe O'Malley."

"George may seem like he's not terribly bright and he's not going to win any awards but he'll pass. Alex, well we'll see."

"Karev's too cocky, too self-assured."

"He can also be an asshole." Meredith muttered.

"There's that too, but you can't tell anyone I said that," the attending grinned.

"I was thinking about it a few days ago, and you know it's kind of weird that I don't even know any of the names of the other interns. There's us five that are with Bailey and I literally don't know any of the others."

"It's always the same. As an intern you simply don't have the time to make friends. In my intern year I wasn't actually friends with anyone but Derek, Mark and Naomi because after med school we all agreed to do our residencies in the same hospital."

"That must have been really nice. I didn't know anyone. I'd literally moved back to Seattle the day before I started work."

"I'm not sure that that was the best idea?" Addison laughed.

"Oh, no it definitely wasn't," the younger woman shrugged. "I got drunk that night as well because that is always such a good idea."

"You were obviously just full to bursting with good ideas that day," the older woman teased.

"I know, right? Sometimes I surprise even myself!"

Addison smirked and slid her glasses on, looking down at the chart she was holding. "I cannot wait for all of this to get computerised; I won't have to constantly strain my eyes attempting to read this scrawl."

"But the glasses suit you!" Meredith teased.

"The eye strain hurts though. And years of peering at these stupid charts has already done permanent damage."

"I look awful in glasses," Meredith whined. "I better not end up with them."

"Oh you will," Addison assured her cheerily. "All doctors do."

"Derek doesn't," she couldn't resist pointing out.

"He just refuses to see an optician," the redhead smirked. "He's ridiculously perfect anyway; he wouldn't let anything ruin that."

"That's a very good point, how does he even do that?" she paused. "Actually I don't want to talk about Derek."

"Me neither, now get back to charting, slave!" the attending interjected before it could get awkward.

"Hey! I resent that!"

"I don't care, slave." They laughed and the shorter woman held her hands up in supplication. "Alright, alright! Just don't let the power go to your head."

The older woman glared at her and then picked up her pen, pointedly going back to charting.

"Good surgery, Grey," the older doctor said approvingly as they were scrubbing out after surgery.

"God that was such a rush! Wow I have never felt anything like that! I don't want to wash my hands, I might wash the feeling away."

"You don't want to smell like surgery."

"Sure I do, that was freakin' awesome! I was awesome!" Meredith turned to the redhead, who found herself admiring the young intern. Her shining, excited eyes, her wide grin and limbs that she couldn't keep still. In that moment she looked adorable. Adorable and beautiful and shatteringly young. The redhead shook herself out of it and laughed.

"That'll be the closest you get to a solo surgery until the surgery that gets offered to one second year resident."

"Everyone's gonna be so jealous!" she crowed victoriously.

"Richard was in the gallery, too."

"Was he?! I didn't look in case it made me even more nervous."

"Good thing, too because it seems that you have a damn steady hand," the redhead said approvingly.

"This makes me so far from ordinary! That was awesome!" She ripped her mask off from where it hung around her neck and finally took her place next to the older woman at the sink just as she started towelling off her hands.

"You are practically physically buzzing, are you okay?" she sniggered.

"I am so not okay, I am so much better than okay! Everything is exciting and shiny and I am bright and shiny! We should celebrate."

"Should we?" she raised a shapely eyebrow sceptically and discarded the towel, resting her hip against the metal sink and giving the excited woman her undivided attention.

"Yes! And I will buy the first round! Even though I sort of feel like you should with your $25 million trust fund."

"Hey! I don't spend that on drink!" the obstetrician laughed. "I actually don't spend it, especially considering that I am an attending and I therefore get paid very, very well anyway."

"Okay, so you're definitely buying the first round, thanks for volunteering," the younger woman grinned cheekily. "But we are definitely going to Joe's tonight and I promise to not invite any interns that might cramp your style."

"Okay fine," she sighed theatrically and then grinned. "I think you'll find that I am not buying all of the drinks though."

"I think you'll find that you are."

"Never. You must have a pretty hefty bank account somewhere, considering who your mother is."

"That may be true, but it's pennies compared to yours."

"You can also buy. Or here's a novel idea, we could buy our own drinks?" the redhead suggested sarcastically.

"I'm celebrating so I shall buy a bottle of tequila to share."

"Why tequila, it's disgusting," she pouted.

"I like tequila, we are very good friends," the blonde shut the water off and grabbed a towel, then faced Addison, mirroring her pose.

"Nobody _likes_ tequila; just some people drink enough of it they end up impervious to the burning sensation."

"I like the burning, that's what I like about it."

"I haven't drunk it in years. I left the tequila in my 20s," the older woman laughed.

"Spoilsport," the shorter woman pouted and led them out of the room and they walked to the nurse's station together.

"I'd like for you to actually be able to remember what amazing company I am, actually."

"Hey, be glad that you're not a man; when I get drunk with them I tend to end up sleeping with them," she joked.

"Why bother to keep to just men?" she teased, hoping that she was successfully managing to hide the way that her heart was thumping in her chest.

"I dunno, apparently drunk me doesn't like women. It's probably just that even when I'm drunk I know that I don't need another crisis on my hands," she tried to keep her tone light and discreetly attempted to wipe her sweaty palms on her scrubs.

"Ooh yeah identity crises aren't fun," she said sympathetically.

"Been through many?" she attempted to keep casual.

"I kept those to my twenties, too," she laughed. "Just don't try it with Yang; I don't think she'd be particularly impressed."

"Oh my God you're right I need to get a gay friend who won't freak out."

"You want to get drunk with a lesbian just to see what would happen?" the older woman raised an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, I mean it's my safest bet, right?" she babbled. "I've never really considered being gay to be honest and who knows I could actually be bisexual."

"Bi-curious, more like," she smirked. "You couldn't get a lesbian to sleep with you anyway, they've all met your type a thousand and times and they always end up with broken hearts."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," she narrowed her eyes at the redhead, who shifted uncomfortably until clear blue eyes widened. "You're gay!" she exclaimed, rather a bit louder than Addison would have liked.

"Shush!" she grabbed the younger woman's arm and dragged her off into an empty on-call room, locking the door behind her.

"I am not gay," she said firmly.

"You're not straight, either," the blonde smirked.

"Okay, so maybe I also show an... appreciation for the finer sex."

"Knew it!" Meredith practically yelled victoriously.

"What do you mean? Is my bisexuality obvious?"

"Not unless someone happens to be paying particular attention to your eye line while you're checking out a female nurse," she sniggered.

"What? I did not check out a nurse!" Addison hastily refuted, though she was undeniably flustered.

"You so did," her smirk was firmly in place as she raised an eyebrow. "So you wanna get drunk with me?"

"No! Like I said, you're a heartbreaker. Anyway, I really would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone about this because it's kind of something that I don't really advertise."

"Does anyone know?"

"Derek, Mark and Callie do."

"Mark, really? How many threesomes were you asked for?"

"Oh God," she winced. "So many, it was practically unceasing for weeks."

"Why don't you tell people? I bet that nurse would go out with you, she's actually pretty cute."

"I don't want to go out with that nurse," she said distractedly. "I really hope that this new development doesn't mean that I shouldn't go to Joe's with you tonight?"

"Its fine, we'll start small at Joe's tonight. You might even manage to get a whole beer in me before we start on the shots," she laughed.

"Good, because there is no way that I am being your little experiment, straight girl."


End file.
